


Before We Really Met

by AifasInTheSky



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Day 06: Origins, Eruri Week, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-01
Updated: 2014-03-01
Packaged: 2018-01-14 05:24:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1254433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AifasInTheSky/pseuds/AifasInTheSky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their very first encounter. Will they remember when the years have passed?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before We Really Met

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the EruRi Week - Day 06: Origins.
> 
> (Contains quoting from "A Choice With No Regrets" and references to chapter 30 of the SNK manga)

The shadows were closing in. The boy was trapped in the alley, with nowhere to run. Five dark silhouettes were approaching menacingly, and the boy’s eyes sharpened, dangerous, a snarl escaping his mouth.

Suddenly, one of the men attacked; and then all hell broke.

...

Five bloodied bodies laid on the alleyway’s cold cobbled street. One lone little figure stood under the moonlight, back resting against a wall while whipping away a slight trail of blood from the corner of his mouth. _Damn jerks..._ the boy kept checking his body for more injuries, hissing a little as he shifted his weight to his left ankle. _I can’t go around limping like this..._

He was so occupied with his injuries that he failed to detect the three new shadows that were slowly making their way towards him.

“What the-?!” Two hands pushed him from the wall, grabbing his arms and locking them against his back. Quickly he threw his head back and knocked his captor with a swift blow to the chin. Then he turned round and hit the other individual straight on the face, leaving there the reddening mark of his knuckles and a bleeding cut on their cheek. But as he was watching his assaulter stumble away, stunned, the third person drew a pocket knife and threw themselves at the unsuspecting boy.

“Aaaggh!!” A man’s growl reached the boy from behind, and he turned swiftly to see a pair of men rolling on the floor in a tangle of limbs. _The hell...?!_ he thought, but he didn’t dwell on that too much, for the man that had first attacked him had recovered and was now getting closer to him, cracking his knuckles menacingly. With an astounding speed he ran towards the criminal and delivered a swift kick to his shin, getting him off balance and making him land painfully on his face. He wouldn’t have left him off the hook like that if it weren’t for the guy that he had hit before; eyes shining with rage the man sprinted towards him ready to beat the lights out of him. But his opponent was the most agile: he jumped over the burly man and let him crash on the wall behind him, grabbing his head, before he dashed at the dumbfounded guy and landed a sharp kick on his back. 

_You won’t be getting up tomorrow_ , the boy thought, looking at the groaning body on the floor while whipping his dark hair out of his eyes, spitting venomously at him. He glanced around and saw the retreating figure of the man that he had previously tackled. _Cowards..._ He then heard a sickening _crack!_ and turned his head just in time to see a tall boy kicking a curling-up man on the ribs, the individual crying in pain before blacking out on the street. The small boy tensed up as the other lifted his gaze from the still figure to fix it on him, eyes shining and breath coming out in harsh pants. 

_His clothes..._ he noted, looking at the taller one’s scratched shoes, dusted black pants and dishevelled, blood-tainted white shirt. _He’s not from here._ The boy took a few steps towards him, messy blond hair falling over his right eye, looking at him with a concerned expression. He backed away. 

“A-are you okay?” the blonde asked, his voice wavering partly because of his age -he couldn’t be more than sixteen- but mostly out of weariness. The short boy’s eyes narrowed, and with a swift movement he made to leave the alley, only to stumble on his hurt ankle and fall on the floor on his knees.

“Shit!” he hissed under his breath, inhaling sharply to bare the pain and trying to stand up again; he could hear steps approaching him from behind. No much later, he felt thin but strong arms lift him off the floor and carrying him to a nearby wooden box, sitting him there. 

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he spat at the other, and he was about to kick him when he suddenly grabbed at his own shirt and ripped at the cloth, getting a long shred of fabric. The boy only watched him stunned as he approached him again and kneeled in front of him, grabbing his left foot and bandaging the sprained ankle with a look of determination in his blue eyes.

_W-wha-?_ He wanted to kick him, to shout at him, to tell him to go the fuck away; but he simply couldn’t, not after he helped him fighting that bastard - and even ruined his expensive clothes for him! _It’s not my fault_ , he thought bitterly as the blonde wrapped the fabric around his foot and up his leg in a pretty inexperienced way. _After all, I didn’t tell him to do any of this; it’s only **his** fault that he’s going to be called off for this mess. Nobody did tell him to have a death wish._ But that didn’t mean that he was unfair, nor an idiot; if this stupid guy helped him, the least he could do was to wait for him to finish and run away as fast as he could, leaving him be.

And that was what he did. As the small boy ran through the streets, he could just imagine the tall figure extending his arm towards him, eyes pleading for him to stay. But that’s ridiculous, he thought, and kept running to his hideout.

o~o~o~o~o~

_“You bastard...”_

_“What’s your name?”_

_“... It’s Levi.”_

_“Levi.” Steps. “Won’t you make a deal with me?”_

_“A deal...?”_

o~o~o~o~o~

Levi hissed as the cloth pressed on his ankle. After his encounter with the Female Titan, he hadn’t received so many injuries, but his sprained ankle shot jolts of pain through his leg with every step he took. Nevertheless, he had kept walking, head straight, looking onwards as impassive as ever. _It isn’t the worst I’ve had to bear_ , he reminded himself bitterly, the deaths of his comrades still stinging on his hearth. They were supposed to reach Wall Rose in 15 minutes or so, and they had already dismounted to make their entering to the Trost District in their most composed shape possible.

It was why he had stopped for a second to tighten the makeshift bandage he had made out of some clothes he had found amongst the supplies. And as he was struggling with the dirty fabric, Erwin suddenly appeared at his side. “Are you okay, Levi?” he asked, eyeing him with concern. 

The corporal chuckled. “Nothing that I can’t handle myself, old man” he replied hastily, shrugging it off with a hand gesture and resuming his work. But after a few failed attempts at wrapping the thing correctly with his trembling hands - _they're all dead, the four of them_ \- the commander kneeled down and grabbed them, peeling them off the bandages and replacing them with his, instead.

Levi fumed at this, and attempted to stop him; but as he was about to punch him on the shoulders, a sense of déjà vu hit him like a maddened horse. A flashback of that time - sitting on a wooden box in a dark alleyway with a blond boy attending to his ankle - flashed through his mind, leaving him breathless for a second.

“I’m done, Levi” Erwin said, and lifted up his gaze to look proudly at his subordinate, only to find the man staring at him, thunderstruck. “... What happens?” he asked him, raising an eyebrow warily.

“Y-you...” he said, eyes big as plates, as he looked at the man intently. Those blue eyes... hadn’t lost their determination, after all that time. “... I can’t believe it.”

“Believe what? Levi, I think we should keep going; we’re a few minutes from Trost, and we have to make it there before any titan appears. If you can hold up on that ankle, that’s it...” he said, almost tauntingly.

With that, the corporal stood up, hitting the tall man on the shoulder and heading off quickly to catch up with the rest of the marching soldiers. And as he walked away, he couldn’t help but imagine the tall boy looking at him with his arms crossed, a triumphant shine in his eyes. _“You **did** stay, after all.”_

_God dammit, Erwin._

**Author's Note:**

> If you find any grammar mistakes (or any other kind of mistake) please tell me and I'll be glad to correct them!


End file.
